Are you a Complicator or a Simplifier?

How to reign in complicators and help your team simplify for greater results 

Written By: Danielle Giannone

In this article, I will explain how to assess if  you are a simplifier or complicator, detail the foundational structures teams need to reign in complicators, and offer strategies and tools to help leaders simplify.  

I have been in the world of leadership coaching for 20 years. If you have ever worked with me, you have likely heard me say that if I am doing my job well, I am helping you and your team simplify. By simplify, I mean I am helping you focus on the most important areas to get the results you want. 

I have spent a good deal of time digging into and reflecting on why some teams are able to move things forward and why others get lost in all the ‘what ifs’. I have come to the conclusion that it’s often because leaders do not know how to deal with complicators or may be complicators themselves.  

A SIMPLE ASSESSMENT

Below are the behaviors that can help you assess yourself and your team:

SIMPLIFIER	COMPLICATOR
Helps move the work forward by cutting through the noise	Asks lots of esoteric or philosophical questions and raises a lot of ‘what ifs’
Okay moving forward with some unknown/80% clarity works for them	Seeks perfection over clarity before moving forward and belabors issues
Risk Taker/willing to take actions without guaranteed outcomes	Risk averse/want more guarantees and often gets stuck trying to perfect things
Takes complex ideas or practices and puts into understandable context for those involved in executing	Adds unnecessary layers to already complicated ideas and confuses/keeps others out
Asks questions that move the team forward. Understands what gets results, prioritizes those areas and says no to unnecessary actions tasks	Derails momentum by throwing out hard to answer questions or idealistic comments and often recommends to delay decisions/more time to think
Drives action and energizes others by showing potential impact to goals	Exhausts or overwhelms. Puts the brakes on and slows or halts progress

KEY STRUCTURES NEEDED TO SIMPLIFY:

Now that you have an idea of where you and your team are in the realm of simplifiers and complicators, what can you do to reign in complicators and help your team simplify?  First things first. You need to ensure some key structures are in place.  These include:

• A Rock Solid Foundation: if the Mission, Vision, Values and current Goals are crystal clear, it’s easy to re-frame and come back to the impact you are trying to make. Anchoring around goals allows for urgency and accounts for limited resources to focus on what’s most important.

  
  

• Clarity over Perfection: Commit to the 80% clarity over Perfection approach to Decision Making. Perfection can cripple a team. Ensure you have a diverse team and an inclusive way of gaining input for decisions but avoid trying to reach consensus. All discussions and working groups should be crystal clear who owns the decision and by when it will be made. When decisions are made, communicate it broadly with the ‘why’ behind it.

  
  

• Key Drivers: Facts over feelings, get clear on the most important drivers of your impact and coach your team to stay focused on what’s most important. See our article on the 80/20 Principle which explains how 20% of your input yields 80% of your output, if you are not crystal clear on this.

PHRASES & QUESTIONS TO REIGN IN COMPLICATORS:

• How does answering this question get us to our goals? 

• Why is answering this question now important to you? Why do you think it is important for helping us get to our goals? How does digging into this further our focus on goals? 

• Given our limited resources, is this the most important discussion we could be having right now? If so, why? How will it help us achieve the outcomes we are seeking? Does it make sense for a few folks to take this discussion offline vs the whole group?

  
  

TOOLS TO KEEP MOMENTUM & SIMPLIFY:

• Put time limits on discussion: Less is often more to keep the team focused and efficient, driving toward outcomes.

  
  

• Build Structure to get to decisions: Example: “We will take 1 hour to discuss pros/cons and other perspectives. At the end of the discussion, I will make a call.” This will push complicators outside of their comfort zone…and that is OK! 

  
  

• 1 to 5 assessment tool: Help folks take a stance so you can see where the team is misaligned and what you need to clarify or focus more time on.

  
  

• Parking Lot: Capture follow up needed to be done outside of room to not derail progress. 

Remember, one complicator has the power to put on the brakes to stop any forward momentum, one simplifier can transform an organization and innovate in the blink of an eye. 

Related Articles: 80/20 Principle